La Mesa Soccer All Stars Nearly Advance to State Championship

After a spectacular win in the Area 11v playoffs held in January, the La Mesa AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) Boys Under 12 All Stars team defeated some the best AYSO teams in Southern California to advance to the finals in AYSO Section 11 playoffs, held in Garden Grove.  Conceding no goals through their pre final matches, La Mesa fought the Lakewood All Stars in a fiercely played final game.

Both teams worked for an advantage, alternating rapidly between attack and defense.  In the end though, only one team could advance, and Lakewood managed to score a single goal and then hold off repeated scoring attempts by La Mesa to clinch the win.  Lakewood will advance to the State Championship held in Davis, CA.

Head coach Steve Sneed stated that it was “quite an accomplishment” for the La Mesa team to go as far as they did.  Sneed said, “They competed against the best of the best. The amount of teams that AYSO Section 11 has for BU12 is over 400! Many of those teams come from a very soccer rich environment.  You just have to look at a map [of the section] so you can fully appreciate the amount of teams that tried to accomplish what the La Mesa All Stars accomplished, second place only to one other team.“

In addition to the BU12 2nd place final, the La Mesa Girls Under 12 and Under 14 teams, coached by Craig Angarola and Rob Will respectively, each took 3rd place in the Section 11 Tournament of Champions, held in early February.

La Mesa AYSO will begin a Spring Soccer season with both a team play and jamboree format, starting on March 9.  Details can be found here: http://www.lamesaayso.org/PageCustom.aspx?id=19&o=231